Communication is the currency of commerce

Reflecting back on last week's blog, how did you go thinking about your business plan and intentionally connecting it to your marketing plan?

If you don’t currently have, or aren’t following, a business and marketing plan, have you thought about using this next quarter, the last quarter of this financial year to set up a plan for your next financial year?

Last week I asked, “Do you know who your intended audience is?”. I mentioned your demographic, geographic, idiosyncrasy, reason to purchase or buy and income level of your desired or ideals clients.

This week, I want to drill down a little further into this space. What are these terms? How can I get a better success rate with the right clients or preferred clients for me? How can I get the best “bang for my buck” from advertising and marketing?

Demographic -  A particular sector of the population

Every business has a particular, peculiar or preferred cross section of the population they are or will appeal to. Who is yours, do you know? Can you find out? Yes - you can. Look back over the last 12 months and ask yourself: Who is most commonly attracted into my business? Who connects with you and why? What problems do you solve better than others? What potential benefits do you bring that your competitors don’t? Who do you like working with, and why?

Make a list and see where your recurring patterns are.

Geographic - A particular region, locality or distribution area that you can reach directly or indirectly

If your business has geographical borders because of your need for physical connection, look at the population, reach, accessibility and ease of access for your clients to your goods and services, and you to them. Can you use couriers? Can you extend borders? Are you limited by franchise agreements? Are you limited by serviceability? Are you limited by accessibility options like parking, disabled access, time of day, remote location? What are the confines or restrictions you deal with geographically?

Idiosyncrasy - What are the modes or behaviours, thinking patterns, peculiarities of the majority of your clientele?

Examining the idiosyncrasies of the majority of your clientele will give you an understanding of who you most easily connect with and why. Is it because you are open at particular times of day, you carry unique items, you can perform specialised tasks and offer unique services? What is your USP and POD, and how can you accentuate it? Are you a niche business? Are you convenient, or  available at certain times of day other competitors aren’t? Can you open early, stay open later, offer 24/7 day back up and support? Can you deliver and install, train, or design something uniquely? Are you able to offer a fast turnaround? Do you have special tools and equipment?

Reason to purchase or buy? - Are you an essential service, a regular supplier of your clients to have a daily, weekly, monthly connection to you?

How regularly do you connect with your clients and customers? Are you a one-off or regular connector? Are you part of a chain of businesses or services your clients need to connect with to complete a sale and provide a service as in mortgage broker, estate agent, conveyancer, cleaner, removalist etc.? Do you need to work with strategic alliances? Do you need to build your networks? Are you a specialised service?

Income Level - Do the products and services you provide generally attract or fill needs for certain income levels

There is an art to matching affordability to your most desired client/customer base. Do your know and understand what ‘income level’ the majority of your clients have?

Are you targeting in your demographic or geographic a certain income level that will match your products and services to affordability, comfort, desirability, relief, essential service, support, enjoyment, consistent or transient need? Are you inexpensive, average, moderate, expensive, exclusive in your products and services?

Are you quality- over quantity-focused?

Considering the 5 factors above, we can begin to very intentionally shape who we are trying to attract into our business.

The HELLO part of Hello Marketing principles is what we will discuss more about next week.

H - Help

E - Encourage

L - Learn

L - Lead

O - Offer

Every time we ‘meet we greet’, but do we communicate effectively through our marketing? We need to consider:

How do we create connections to turn into conversations followed by conversions to increase our customers/clients?

How we communicate about our products and services is completely unique to the circumstances surrounding the principles of the need, want or desire of the buyer.

Communication is the currency of commerce.

Have a great week and please join us again next week. My motto and mantra for business is to help people “Planalife they want to live in through a Business on Purpose”. This is my most important message I want to engage clients; currents and potential.

Over this week, define what your motto or mantra: what you are doing and who do you want to connect with even more that you currently are?

If you need some support I would love to have a conversation with you. Think about defining the above and begin to be more intentional and deliberate about finding the clients you really want to connect with and get ready to grow.

Don’t be backward in coming forward.

Have a great week… Ian